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Colorado TCAP reading scores off slightly as READ Act gets underway

Korbin Menderhall, a third-grader at Mountain View Elementary in Broomfield, looks at a book during class Monday. (Mark Leffingwell, Daily Camera)

Colorado's third-grade reading results in the final year of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program dipped slightly from last year, but students scoring proficient or advanced continued to hover in the low 70 percent range.

The 2014 numbers showed 71.5 percent of the state's third-graders essentially passing the test. That's down from 73 percent in 2013, although each year's scores represent a different group of students.

Statewide data show similar drops among black and Latino students, who passed at about a 56 percent rate. Growth data that chart students' year-to-year progress won't be out until August.

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Still, the general dip in scores as Colorado begins implementation of the READ Act — the 2012 legislation that directs schools to identify and help struggling early readers — has caught the attention of district administrators.

"There's no easy answer to why we're all down," said Judy Skupa, assistant superintendent of performance improvement for Cherry Creek Schools, which saw a dip of 3 percentage points. "The answer is going to be complex and require some deep conversations with all the folks involved."

Scores in Denver Public Schools, Boulder Valley, Littleton and Adams 12 all lagged about 1 percentage point over last year, while Douglas County lost 2.5 percentage points.

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DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg called the statewide numbers "very concerning." Although DPS has significantly closed its gap compared with Colorado averages, he said the continuing deficit demands attention on early literacy even as the legislature wrestles with future funding for the READ Act.

"We need to focus very closely on reading for all our kids, particularly young students," said Boasberg, noting that the district will institute three initiatives this summer aimed at improving early literacy.

Districts across the state began implementing the READ Act this school year, which meant that struggling students probably received only a few months of interventions before TCAP testing began in February.

Because the interventions target students starting in kindergarten, it could be another three years before the legislation's impact can be measured fully.

"What I'm excited about with the READ Act is that it's helping us identify students and pinpoint the right intervention for each child," said Heather Beck, chief academic officer for Jefferson County Public Schools. "That is critical and why there's hope for future student scores."

Westminster 50, a traditionally low-performing district, was the only large metro-area district to show improvement over last year in terms of third-graders who scored proficient or advanced on TCAP.

That continues a four-year trend that the district ascribes largely to its competency-based system of not advancing students until they have mastered grade-level material. Slightly less than half of its third-graders passed the test last year, but 56.3 percent scored proficient or advanced this year.

It has seen a nearly 10 percentage-point rise since 2012.

"We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but four consecutive years of growth show that our requirement that every child fully understand a learning target before moving to the next level was the right decision for our children," said Westminster 50 Superintendent Pam Swanson.